This mood though! I hope it doesn't come across as superficial, but I genuinely enjoy what I am seeing in your gallery. An absolutely outstanding style, and a great sense of humor I look forward to seeing more of in the future. X3

Thank you for saying so! There is certainly more of THIS sort of thing to come.
The superficiality was longterm! In a few years I saw many people appear, seem to go out of their way to build me up, and then disappear for one reason or another, and sometimes for none that I could determine, that I became quite tired and bitter. My hope is that if I am more obvious about the nature of my existence, fewer people will come into my company with expectations that I cannot meet.

So you've been doing this 3+ years and got about 1000 followers/watchers/whatchamacallits. That's actually not that bad

It appears the "formula" is
- make something that shows who you are, so that if people come to your page(s), they will see at the top something that'll get them hooked
- bandwagon on / pay homage to something / someone popular to gain "exposure" (so that there will be people to see that hook you made)
- be yourself for a little bit to show these new fans they haven't gotten it wrong with you
- do something for your new fans
- do something for your old fans
- rest up
- repeat

unfortunately, with these sites, it is like early 20th century century telephones, where you need one on your desk for each telephone company

If by "this" you mean posting to stupid art websites, it has been just over twelve years! I dumped an account on this one, known as "skrimpf," back in 2014. Really the only relevant website that I ever made an embarrassing show of "quit"ting but it still bothers me that I ever let it get that bad. Even now when I do something with the hope that someone else appreciates it, it falls flat and I hate myself for it.

I have maybe four or five "old fans" and if they are still around after all this, it hopefully means I don't have to contort myself to try and impress them. There are however loads and loads of people who once pretended to be fans with some unspecified expectation that I failed to deliver on. "new fans" will presumably turn out like that regardless of my actions!

Sorry, I had no idea

People get "turned off" for many reasons, including simply growing older (getting married, changing jobs, etc).

And what I meant by "doing something for the fans" could be as simple as drawing an old character again, not necessarily something for one specific person. I understand the feeling, but don't let it get you down. You have amazing talent and skill that is rare even on sites like these made to collect talents and skills

I keep hoping you'll depict the secret proceedings of the Congress of Dopes. That's my now-specified expectation.

I appreciate your work, even if I don't say anything.

You're on my very short list of always-click-on-the-thumbnail artists.

Takes a long time to post just one sketch when you have to post it in four or five different places.

I post to 11 sites. I should probably cull some of them, but it's hard to tell which are the least effective when I barely have watchers on any of them.

That is especially so with me because I feel dirty if I use the exact same description on all of them. And ones like this tend to get priority because I know I can update the picture later if there is something [fixable] wrong with it! I may need weeks to decide I am not going to poke at something any longer.

I hear there's something called Postybirb

and it's not even over... twitter and who knows what else site will do the same as tumblr... artists have difficult times.... https://twitter.com/CookieCyboid/st.....51515823013889
i know you are not nsfw artist but the cont migration and just feeling not wanted anywhere in general is familiar for me as well. (for various reasons)

I agree that this is bad for everyone, but I feel like porn people don't do a thing for us when we lose but want us to cry when they lose.

When do porn people ever lose?

who is "us"? artists in general?

I meant me and you, since you said you also often felt unwanted! But indeed it could be extended to anybody else who also feels like this for this reason. Although I also have plenty of gripes with non-"porn people."

well i was just confused because im still a nsfw artist as well.... i dunno if im porn person but i still feel the same. It's so hard to get any attention, my improvement in art seems not worthy at all and i cant keep up with this migration.

Indeed, the whole system is unbalanced and irregular, just like the ones off the internet. There used to be a difference, but now they work the same way.

It is a mess everywhere you go, which is too bad, since at the heart of it all it seems to be just a matter of getting enough stupid eyeballs on your stuff, no matter where they come from. But nobody is everywhere, just scattered about in some great mess of links and preferred sites. Even worse, the sites that physically run the best (which seems to be IB and Weasyl) nobody uses, which just makes matters worse.

I'd say the best site is the one everyone had already been using for 15 years, but you're right, nobody likes DA, even as everyone keeps using it.

Every time there is a mass panic like that it messes with stability. Even as some people trickle back in, many do not. They only follow when someone that they perceive as powerful tells them to. So those who are popular before the annual exodi are popular afterward wherever they choose to go, and it means nothing to them that doing this all the time screws up the situation for people like me. Even ones that they haven't pretended to like and dumped in the muck on their way up. I was a fool to think this was a game i could play. I can change what I do in the future but the last ten years will always have been very stupid years for me.
I appreciate (and am impressed) that you have stuck around, even through periods when I was yet less pleasant than this!

You're always worth sticking around for!

This has been my experience every time FA has a controversy. And I return to the final panel every single time. It's an exercise in futily, just post where you feel comfiest posting, if it allows you to post. I've been called and accused of everything under the sun for staying here, but it is a site that stays around and I can post things to it the people who like to see things I post can see. Silly behind the scenes staff politics turns people away, but it can be ignored. Unless it affects my ability to view and use the site, it usually is every time.

You always seem genuine and (somewhat?) human when you post about things like this that get your goat, and do so in nonaggressive, amusing to read fashion. A lot of the time I like your writing and sense of humor as much as your art!

Guilt and shame are two of the primary components of my being. After too many years I realized the people tossing additional guilt and shame my way seem to not have nearly as much as I already do, and consequently have a far easier time relocating and integrating into new groups full of people just as unpleasant as the ones they were getting away from, merely without any necessarily obvious crimes yet to note.

Thank you for appreciating whatever this is! I thought these comic strips were some of the most aggressive things I ever put up! (Excluding text posts which are too long to ensure have some coherency to them). Although I tend not to make the angriest ones.

Staying put and continuing to post for years under the same name on the same account would have allowed people to learn where / who you are, and those who were interested in it would gather. Scampering around chasing popularity on one site and then another just means those potential fans have to scamper around after you to find your stuff. They probably won't do that - so this is a futile game. Who cares about those who don't like your work, you're not doing this for them.

The only account/name i definitively disposed of was "skrimpf," since I still hated the name even after realizing that I personally would not be better received elsewhere. Even though it seemed like there should be loads more potential viewers elsewhere, they weren't and aren't coming. But still I felt like I needed to hide my usage of certain sites from certain people. I probably even said back in 2014 that I have enough shame without anyone else tossing more on over things totally unrelated to me.
But your last remark is not necessarily true! I have done plenty of work for people who eventually decided they didn't like me. Going forward I must ensure that the work is only for anyone else incidentally.

Well I won't pretend that I've never done anything for attention & approval (aka external validation) .. but my primary audience is me. I guess I'm just lucky that there are a few intelligent & sophisticated people around who share my tastes.

There is something to be said for having a presence on multiple platforms; cross-promotion, different user bases, wider audience, etc etc. but for that to pay off, you have to set up your account in multiple places and keep it reasonably active so viewers there will know you are alive & producing. This is a lot of (gasp) WORK, but sadly that's how it goes. You gotta do dumb crap you don't wanna do in order to get rewarded. Don't worry about which direction the stampede-of-the-month club is going. If you're already on the site they ran off to, great. If you want to join it, sure, why not add another thing you have to keep track of. But in a year they'll probably stampede right back, so you've got to maintain your previous account as well. Seems better to me to just stay put. Maybe pop in on the other site and post comments here & there to remind "the right people" that you still exist .. over there, on the old site, which is still good despite last month's irrational panic.

 rockie in the comment above mine, has a good point. FA may not work great and may be run by chumps, but it's stable (and for the last few years has had IMVU, a genuine professional online company, propping it up and they STILL haven't ruined it yet). After every scare, the dust settles, and the panicked sheep come bumbling back. I just ignore the political BS as long as it doesn't affect the site functionality or prevent me from posting the content I want to post.

Nope nope I have abandoned accounts but skrimpf was the only one that probably still had some potential in it. In other cases I felt like the longer I stayed the less response I got, and so worked harder at trying to get noticed than actual useful things, and still didn't do any better and felt like a total imbecile. And then that would lead to more dumb situations that I would want to make pitiful comic strips about!

I keep at things that I think have potential in them, but every time there IS such a war cry to abandon a place, it does send many people away and they don't all come back, unless just the right person tells them to, and then likely only for such persons. And at least around here I don't believe protest quits have ever resulted in positive change. There are probably more creepy self-serving perverts on the staff than ever.

I will do dumb[ish] things to get rewarded; a viable reward means it is in fact for me. But I am not doing free stuff for boneheads anymore. Although I have probably declared that before!

There is always the infuriating enigma of "shitposts" .. you see something that the poster obviously put no effort into, it's complete rubbish, yet it has gotten thousands of views & likes - while the thing you did that took a lot of thought and you're extremely proud of is sitting there being ignored. I don't know the magic formula for making a successful shitpost, and it drives me nuts. How do they DO that??

By all means, don't do free stuff for boneheads!

I occasionally get the old "do you take requests" message, and the appropriate response is "I take commissions, and my prices are listed here (url). If you are penniless, you can make a suggestion and if I like it I might draw it. So go ahead and tell me your idea. I won't make fun of you or tell you it's dumb, I'll just either draw it or I won't. You have nothing to lose."

They usually don't write back.

I second the frustration expressed here!

One way or another I am not angry enough about something even though I seem to be angry all the time!

Your reasoning is splendid. Well done.

Thank you! Too bad that it is all in retrospect.

I feel for you, man. It's gotta be hell setting up shop each time whatever site falls under controversy.

I didn't even have a good way of mentioning inkbunny, furocity and a few others whose names I cannot remember that I did not have time to put every single piece on. I wouldn't mind starting over again and again if it felt like progress, but this has typically felt like smaller and smaller amounts of the same people. Knowing i spent years and only got this far is what hurts. But I am glad to have this relatively positive reception to my gripe heap this time.

And the 'best' part is, it's still a relevant gripe four years on.

Sadly.